As the four-year anniversary of the Taunton City Hall arson fire draws near, officials are no closer to announcing when the rebuilding project will begin.

Cost estimates to repair the historic City Hall, at 15 Summer St., near Church Green, have previously ranged as high as $23 million.

Officials have also had to accept the fact that the person who set the fourth-floor, attic fire on the morning of Aug. 17, 2010, were never apprehended, despite evidence consistent with an accelerant used to start the blaze.

City Hall offices have been move to the former Lowell M. Maxham School at 141 Oak St.

Progress

Taunton officials want to demolish the city-owned Leonard Block/Star Theater building to facilitate the work on City Hall. The two buildings stand close to one another.

The 140-year-old Star Theater is crumbling, with pigeons flying in and out of openings in the brick walls.

It’s been almost four months since the City Council hired a Brockton company to raze the dilapidated, four-story structure.

The city has been stymied in its effort to knock down the Star because of opposition from Dolores Milho, whose New York Lace building shares a wall Leonard Block.

The project can’t begin until Milho and her brother Joseph deMello, a local attorney acting as her legal counsel, sign a “temporary site-access and construction easement.”

Taunton Building Department Superintendent Wayne Walkden, who will act as owner’s representative for the demolition of the Star and project manager during City Hall’s renovation, has said he’s optimistic a final design plan from JDC Demolition will prove satisfactory to deMello and his sister.